The Contemplations, Rants & Reminiscences of DavidB327

Something Sensational To Read On The Train

We got back from Florence last night.It worked out fine in the end, although our trip got off to a shaky start.Florence is a lot further from Pisa airport than I remembered, and by the time we arrived at the hotel it was too late for dinner in the hotel’s restaurant.However there was a bottle of Vinsanto and some canticci almond biscuits in our room, so we had those to keep us going (they were the most amazing cantucci I’ve ever eaten).So far so good.

Anyway the next day (SG’s birthday) it rained pretty much all day.A bit frustrating to put it mildly!After about half an hour or so waiting in the lobby area the rain subsided a little bit, so we set off, and managed to get as far as the Duomo (along with hundreds of other visitors).Not too long after that the rain started again, and we took refuge in a little bar.We’d not intended to stay that long, but after the first half carafe the rain went from heavy to cloudburst, so we had another – not the best of ideas really, given that we’d be wanting wine with our meal later in the day.Well that didn’t matter so much then, but it did when I woke up with a sore head the next day. Maybe I should not have had the 2nd digestif after our evening meal.

The next day was dry, but it was also cold, unseasonably cold in fact and a good few degrees colder than London.So after a little while exploring, and admiring the splendour of this great city we had to take refuge in a bar again, this time to get warm.Oddly enough it got a lot warmer a couple of hours later, and after that the weather was fine, and I got the chance to wear my new Miou-Miou sunglasses.

We stayed at the Savoy hotel, which is right in the centre of the city, on the Piazza della Republica.It would be a great place to have a foot fetishist convention.In the lobby area there are a number of shoes and boots on display, which are made locally I believe.The footwear theme is reflected throughout the hotel, with photographs in he corridors and in each of the rooms.I was hoping that our room would have a photograph of thigh length boots, but no such luck!

There are quite a few designer shops in Florence.In Dolce and Gabbana I came across a rather nice leather jacket with a mandarin collar (quite similar though not as nice as the one I saw in Paris last year).I would have bought it had we not been about to start saving up in preparation for a move to a larger apartment (a pity, because you can never have too many leather jackets).The staff in Prada were pushy to put it mildly.Everything in there was black, so I guess when we walked in they must have thought they were on to a winner! Sadly not, for them at least, for the same reason as above.

We’d arranged a late check out with the hotel, and had time to visit the Uffizi museum on the last day, although our plans were nearly thwarted by Italian bureaucracy.We’d booked tickets for 10.45 at the Uffizi – but that does not mean that it entitles you to walk in at 10.45.It entitles you to join the queue for 10.45 tickets!After finally getting to the front of this queue (and getting the tickets), then you can join the ‘fast track’ queue to actually enter the museum.Of course it was worth it in the end (more for SG than myself), but I’m not sure I would have waited for upwards of 3 hours to get in, as many people would have done.